Where Do Roma Go Next After This Season?

Mercato

The question most Roma fans will have at season's end, “Who will Roma sign next?”

 

With Walter Sabatini as sporting director it looks like Roma has already started to make some moves. The team is currently working out a deal with 20 year old Brazilian defender. Dodo, to move from Corinthians to the capitol this coming Summer. There are also rumors that Roma, and some other Serie A teams, may try to lure Sebastian Prodl of Werder Bremen to their side.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as the owners have pledged to dish out some more cash on quality players in the next transfer window.

A lot of effort went into getting players like Erik Lamela, Miralem Pjanic, and Pablo Osvaldo. Roma fans were lucky to get some of these players as a few were being scouted by much bigger clubs in Europe.

To support the back line Simon Kjaer, Gabriel Heinze, and Jose Angel were brought in. The season looked very promising but, the back line has been plagued by injuries and poor performances.

Nicolas Burdisso has been out for most of the season with an injury from international duties. Kjaer sometimes puts in a good performance, but has not played to his full potential. Luis Enrique has not put a lot of faith in Jose Angel until recently.

At the moment Roma doesn’t have much depth off the bench and we have seen players like Rodrigo Taddei and Daniele De Rossi giving up their usual spots in the midfield to help cover gaps in the back.

With all of these issues in defense the team is currently in 6th place, and in the fight for 3rd which could mean some Champions League action next season. The new owners did very well with the players that were brought in for the midfield and forward positions.

In all honesty who would have thought in September that the team would have the problem of filling defensive positions? With the team not in any European competitions this season there should have been plenty of players to cover the back.

These things happen though and this is a transition period for the team. Walter Sabatini has his work cut out, but it sounds like he is going to address this issue in the upcoming transfer window. The team has the support from the fans and the owners, and it looks like the Summer mercato will be just as exciting as last year’s.

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Jay Scardina in Editorial
  • http://twitter.com/Rich_Chambers Richard Chambers

    The return of Burdisso will be a huge boost but that won’t cover all of the issues at the back (of which there are many).

    It looks increasingly unlikely that the services of Simon Kjaer will be required after his loan, leaving us with a lot of work to do there.

    I think we need at least two centre backs. Juan/Heinze have been outpaced in Luis Enrique’s high defensive line too many times this season and the only option, apart from dropping deeper, is a quicker partnership at the back.

    Who are the candidates?

    • http://italy.theoffside.com Julian

      That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? So far Sabatini has gone for mostly young players, but as we’ve seen with Kjaer, it’s not always easy for younger centre-backs from foreign leagues to adapt to Serie A- and he had experience at Palermo. Lots of rumors getting thrown around- Subotic, Hummels, perhaps Ranocchia- but I think it may well end up being relatively unknown purchases from South America.

      • http://twitter.com/ilcapitanova Imran Iqbal Tahir

        I agree we can easily find ourself in the situation where we will be looking to sign two centre backs this summer. Burdisso’s return will, like you say Richard, be a huge boost. However, to partner him we need a defender who possesses speed and calmness. I’d go as far as to say Roma need its Thiago Silva. I hear from trusted sources Dede (Vasco da Gama) is the real deal although I have not seen too much of him myself.

        James (@ilroadrunner) suggested Angelo Ogbonna once again. He argued Ogbonna would be the easiest quality defender to get this summer. He has a point.

        • http://twitter.com/BoFaris_ Mohammad Al-Faris

          There are usually alot of names that can be signed as CB, Silvestre of Palermo or BenAtia of Udinese.
          What we truly need to sign is a reliable FB as Rosi is starting to get on my nerves with his latest performances. He was great at the start of the campaign but with time he’s showing lack of experience.

          Sign ISLA!!

        • http://twitter.com/Di_Elle Dani

          Ogbonna is way overpriced.

          • http://RomaJournal.com/ Julian

            Actually Ogbonna impresses me the more I see him. If we can negotiate a decent price I’m all for it. Lack of Serie A experience a bit of a concern though.

          • http://twitter.com/Di_Elle Dani

            SerieB experie

          • http://RomaJournal.com/ Julian

            Not too sure. Only half a season of Serie A experience under his belt and he hasn’t played for Udi since the Milan loss last month. I don’t think he’s injured so I assume he was just dropped. Transfermarkt has his value at about 4 million right now though; at that price it’s tough to say no. Could always bounce back.

  • http://twitter.com/samuelrubio99 Sam Rubio

    I am very disappointed at Bojan, I know people say that he hasn’t been given a fair shot to prove himself, but LE sees him in training every day, I mean he would be starting games if he was as talented as people say he is, and he hasn’t had any major injuries, at least that we know of, unless he improves dramatically the remaining of this season and next season I doubt Roma is gonna pay the extra 28 million euros to keep him around. Kjaer on the other hand, I think should stay, he is been playing a lot better as of late, besides that play when Ibra scores the winner on saturday, to be fair Ibra is playing ridiculous and he looks unstoppable. As far as the market for the summer, I agree with the majority os romanists, he should focus on defense, names that come to mind are Otamendi, Garay, Rodriguez from Sporting Lisboa, and Balzaretti to add some experience. what do guys think??

    • http://RomaJournal.com/ Julian

      Rumor has it that most of the budget, if not all, will be dedicated to defense. I’m not sold on Otamendi myself and Balzaretti is having a bit of a decline this year after being so good for so long. Age may be catching up to him- he’ll be 31 next season which would go against Sabatini’s usual policy of trying to bring down the average age of the team.

      • http://twitter.com/Di_Elle Dani

        Otamendi is having a poor season with Porto. (it hurts me say that )